Michael Jackson, Academy Awards

It's been a very busy couple of weeks lately. I do coverage and read scripts for Regent Entertainment/Here! Networks, Slamdance Screenplay Competition and Final Draft Screenplay Competition and they've been inundating me. It's been overwhelming at times, but it means money. But it also means I haven't added anything here lately.

I'm not sure what to add or talk about. I haven't figured out what to do with this blog. It's been a great place to store a lot of information in one place, but beyond that, it's a bit of a puzzlement. I don't really have an audience yet. If I did, then that might help guide me, but it's still all a bit vague.

I was shocked, as everybody was, at the one two punch of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. It just sort of felt like time stopped for awhile. There's nothing like death, especially of someone dying of cancer at 62 and someone just suddenly dying out of nowhere, with no warning, to bring out all the existential questions in life. You know, all the old chestnuts like what is the point if all we're going to do is die? What is the meaning of life? Is there a god and if so, then why is his telephone number unlisted (sorry, but where would existential questions be without a Woody Allen type joke). There was nothing surprising about all the television coverage (like the kind that was used for 9/11 and Princess Diana), but there was something humorously incongruous about watching Keith Olbermann holding court for quite a few hours on MSNBC, waxing news like over Jackson's death as if he were covering the Kennedy assassination. I'm not saying it was wrong of him to do it, it just seemed odd.

It's almost insulting to go to any other subjects after that, but this is a blog. The Academy came out with the idea of nominating ten movies instead of five like they use to do during the Depression (hmmm, do you think there's a connection). I have no problem with the idea. After all, I do a top ten list every year and none of my movies, or almost none of my movies, get nominated, so I'm quite prepared to see that none of my top ten matches the top ten of the Academy. It's a good idea as any to try to boost ratings, but the Academy is going to get as many complaints as they use to anyway. They also made an announcement that special awards will be done at a different ceremony (the Jean Hersholt, special awards to people like Alfred Hitchcock). This is a terrible idea and I predict it will be scrapped as more people complain. They should take a list of the "minor" categories and draw out a certain number at random each year and do those at a special ceremony. But of course, I can't even get a movie made so why should the Academy care what the hell I think.

More later, I hope.